Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a thief who uses a ladder.

1753

Thief-Catcher 25: There are another Sort of Rogues called Jacobs; these go with Ladders in the Dead of the Night, and get in at the Windows, one, two or three a pair-of-Stairs and sometimes down the Area.

2. (UK Und.) a ladder.

1703		Hell Upon Earth 5: Jacob, a Ladder.
1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 20: A Jacob, alias Ladder.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 37: The second Floor Windows; which are often got into by the Help of a Jacob; that is, a Ladder.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxix: A Jacob A Ladder.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
1786		Whole Art of Thieving 26: The second floor windows, which are often got into by a Jacob, that is, a ladder.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1803		Sporting Mag. Apr. XXII 54/1: ‘An please your honour [...] for prigging a Jacob from a dunger-dan-ding-drag.’ [...] Prigging is to steal, a Jabob, is a ladder; and a dunger dan-ding-drag, a night cart.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry II ii: Holloa! you had better mind what you are at with your jacob.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1840		Flash Mirror 20: Peter Smutto [...] has entered his old flag of the Jacob and Drag, and he now does his business under the cognomen of the Bucket and Dunnaken.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 123/1: Jacob, a ladder.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Oct. 1/3: ‘That’s the man we want [...] on to the ladder.’ [...] ‘Not so fast,’ said Forky [...] ‘this Jacob was invented for gentlemen like me, not for scrubbers like you’.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1865		T. Archer Pauper, Thief and Convict 145: A high flight of new steps, steep as those of a ship’s hold, and known to the lodgers as ‘Jacob’s ladder’.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 39: Jacob, a ladder.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 451: Jacob, A ladder.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1954		J. Phelan Tramp at Anchor 110: Men who were not burglars nevertheless habitually used words like stick, jacob, swag, peter, groin, when they meant jemmy, ladder, bundle, safe or ring.
1976		(ref. to 1930s–70s) R. Barnes Coronation Cups and Jam Jars 206: Jacob’s – Ladder.

3. the penis [it ‘climbs up’ the vagina].

c.1800		‘Cumnock Psalms’ in Bold (1979) 62: He placed his Jacob where she did piss, / And his ballocks where the wind did blaw.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
a.1969		‘The Oaks of Jimderia’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 223: God bless this white belly and curly black hair, / The rod of old Jacob may here lose its seed, / But a cunt that lies gaping shall ne’er gape in need.

4. (UK und.) any form of staircase.

1824

letter 28 Dec. in Pierce Egan’s Life in London (10 Apr. 1825) 83/2: [L]ittle Davy, who is no dirt, stood at the bottom of the Jacob (stair-case), with the parlour poker in his hand.